A cosplayer's diary of her cosplay antics and sets, convention adventures, reviews. Named after her original art series "No Passports!"

1/8/13

Gamer's Review - NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits

If you enjoy Greek Mythology you might enjoy this side scrolling game from Over the Top Games....Nyx Quest. Originally released for the Wii and then Steam (the version I have and being reviewed), you play the titular Nyx, a winged girl or an air spirit depending on your interpretation, who ventures down to the surface to find her missing friend Icarus (the same one with the wax wings). Ancient Greece seems to have gone to hell as the land seem to have turned to deserts, the sun is unforgiving and the sand is so hot touching it will hurt Nyx, forcing her to stand and fly from broken pieces of debris to avoid touching the ground. Creatures (espeically crows) made out of shadows haunt the land and impede Nyx in her quest. To help Nyx in her quests the Greek gods...the first being Zeus...grant her new powers to over come obstacles.

On the game play front....traditional side scrolling controls with the exception Nyx can flap her wings and fly for limited of time and flaps (as indicted by the feather meter). To make things really interesting you also have a cursor icon (controlled by the mouse) to perform actions like stopping pillars from crashing you, grabbing fire balls, and moving blocks provided they have a specific symbol on it. For me personally it was kind of frustrating ... video game console controls don't translate overly well to the keyboard and mouse world....without a gamepad you might have some difficulty in the control department, more so with tasks involving coordination with moving Nyx herself and using the cursor icon to perform a seperate action at the same time ..as of typing I'm still having a hard time trying to fly to avoid the hydra's attack and at the same time trying to catch and fling fire balls at him....I predict it would work better with the wii remote.

On the artistic front....the atmosphere is fantastic yet unsettling and forbidding The Greek vibe is strong yet punishing in feel, an Ancient Greek Dystopia I would say. Unease is suggested by the endless tracks of deserts, Ancient Greek ruins baked into redish-brown earthen tones by the hot sun and the music is wonderful yet continues the feel of this is a sun baked hell.

In conclusion.....I have heard of this game before and I only got it because it was part of 2-D game bundle and out of all of them I find this game very intrigueing. If you enjoy good traditional Greek style music and Greek mythology I would suggest this game....a dystopia set in Ancient Greece is an interesting mixture.